Creating a technical writing application

This page contains hints for technical writers on how to complete the key
parts of an application to participate in Season of Docs. This information
helps you understand what factors the open source organizations may consider
when they select the technical writing projects that they want to mentor
during Season of Docs.

Introduction

The guidelines below are generally applicable for Season of Docs.
Each individual open source organization may have specific
assessment criteria. You can contact any of the participating organizations
before submitting your application, to discuss their requirements and to
plan your project proposal. See the technical writer exploration phase
described in the technical writer
guide.

Note: Following these guidelines won't ensure that your proposal is
selected for Season of Docs, but it will improve your chances.

The application form

The application form is available in the
technical writer guide during
the technical writer application phase.

After submitting the form, you can continue updating the information on the form
until the end of the technical writer application phase
(July 9, 2020).

Personal information

The application form requests the following personal information:

Your name: Supply your full name. Season of Docs will not share this
name with the open source organizations and will not publish this
name on the website.

A display name of your choice: Supply the name that you want to use as
a public identifier during your participation in Season of Docs. We
strongly recommend that you do not use your real, full name for your
display name. Season of Docs will share your display name with the
open source organization that you indicate on your application form.
Season of Docs will publish your display name
on the website in the list of accepted technical writing projects.

Your email address: Supply the email address associated with your
Google account. (You do need a Google account to participate in
Season of Docs. You can use a non-Gmail email address with a Google account.
See this help article.)
Season of Docs uses your email address to communicate with you
and to make the website resources available to you. Season of Docs will
share this email address with the open source organization that you indicate
on your application form. Season of Docs will not publish this email address
on the website.

See below for a summary of how Season of Docs uses the
information from your application form.

Information about your technical writing experience

When the open source mentors and organization administrators examine a project
proposal, they're interested in your technical writing experience. You can
provide details on the form as follows:

Recent technical writing experience: Up to three entries where
you can list your most recent technical writing roles or work experience.
If you have open source documentation experience, include it here too.
Summarize your role, the responsibilities of the role, and the work you
completed. You can provide dates where relevant.

A link to your resume or CV:(Optional.) The URL of a publicly
accessible version of your resume or curriculum vitae (CV).

A link to your work samples:(Optional.) The URL of a publicly
accessible portfolio of writing samples, or individual links to examples of
your work.

Anything else you'd like to add:(Optional.) Any information you want to
add this application. For example, your interest in technical documentation,
why you want to participate in Season of Docs, or other relevant
experience.

Project proposal

Your project proposal is a summary of the documentation work that you would like
to complete while working with your chosen open source organization during
Season of Docs.

You can submit a maximum of three project proposals. All your project proposals
must be on the same application form.

Spend time on your project proposal, bearing the following guidelines in mind.

Preparatory work:

Examine the list of participating open source organizations and choose one or
more organizations that interest you. Take a look at the project ideas that
each of your chosen open source organizations has proposed.

If the organization that interests you has not suggested any ideas, you
can examine the
generic list of project ideas
and base your idea on one of those. You may also choose to come up with your
own idea, whether the organization has posted ideas or not.

Get in touch with one or more of the participating organizations to discuss
the project ideas. To make contact, use the organization's email address
shown in the list of participating organizations. Early discussions
help you put together a good project proposal.

Your project proposal on the application form:

Open source organization name: Enter the name of the open source
organization that you want to work with during Season of Docs. This must
be one of the participating organizations displayed on the Season of Docs
website.

Open source project name: This is the name of the open source project
that you want to work on during Season of Docs. The project must belong to
one of the participating organizations displayed on the Season of Docs
website. For some organizations, the organization name and project name may
be the same.

The name of your proposed technical writing project. Supply a short,
descriptive title that summarizes the main goal of the work you're proposing.

A detailed description. Give as much detail as possible in the description
of the technical writing project that you're proposing. It's fine to enter
multiple paragraphs in the description field. Here are some ideas of what to
include:

Give details of the documentation you're proposing to create/update.
If you plan to update an existing document or site, include a link and
describe the proposed updates. If you're proposing a new document or a new
site, describe the content and audience.

Say why you're proposing the new documentation or the updates.

If you've discussed the project with someone from the open source
organization, include a summary of the outcome of those discussions.

Pay attention to the language and style of your proposal. The open source
organization may use these as a factor in assessing the proposal.

Don't supply a link to your project description. The description should
include all the definitive details of your project. The open source
organization must be able to make a selection based on the content of the
application form rather than on content held elsewhere. If you need to link
to other content that supplements the description, that's OK, but be
aware that only the content of the application form is used for project
selection.

Other important fields on the application form

Below are guidelines on other key information you should supply on the
application form:

Choosing a standard-length or long-running project: The standard period
for the doc development phase of Season of Docs is three months. If your
project requires a longer period of time, you must indicate this on the
application form after consultation with the open source organization of
your choice. See the description of long-running
projects.

Accepting the Season of Docs stipend: Season of Docs pays a sum of
money to those technical writers who successfully complete their projects,
provided the technical writer wants to accept the stipend.
See the information about
technical writer stipends.
The stipend is optional. If you do not want to receive the stipend,
indicate your choice on the application form.

How Season of Docs uses the information from your application form

This section summarizes how Season of Docs uses the information from
your application form. Earlier sections of this page describe the key fields in
detail.

The table lists key fields. For each field, the table indicates whether
Season of Docs:

Passes the information on to the open source organization that you have
specified on your application form.

Publishes the information in the list of accepted technical writing projects
on the Season of Docs website.

Information on form

Shared with open source organization?

Displayed on Season of Docs website?

Full name

Display name

Email address

Recent technical writing experience

Link to resume or CV

Link to work samples

Anything else you'd like to add

Open source organization/project name

Technical writing project name and description

Long-running or standard-length project

Acceptance of stipend

Key to the symbols used in the above table:

Symbol

Meaning of symbol

Yes

No

Notes

Here are a few more points to bear in mind:

Submitting multiple project proposals: You can submit more than one
project proposal, but Season of Docs accepts only one project proposal per
technical writer. You can only submit one application form. The form allows
up to three project proposals.

Total number of technical writing projects in the program:
Season of Docs can only accept a certain maximum number of technical writing
projects in total. See how
slot allocation works.

Related guides

Take a look at the
hints for mentors on
how to assess technical writer proposals. Understanding the mentors' selection
criteria helps you craft a proposal that's more likely to succeed.

For procedural information about when and how to submit your Season of Docs
application,
see the technical writer guide.